Happy Stone Crab Day!

Stone crab season opens today, October 15, 2014.

Today it once again becomes acceptable and legal to grab our most delicious of bottom feeders, lob off one of their arms, steam it, douse it in butter and – depending on your persuasion – mustard-worcestershire sauce, and eat it with our happy mouths. Stone crab season, which runs from October to mid-May each year, helps protect against overfishing and gives these tasty crustaceans time to regrow their little arms. That’s right, when harvested correctly, these little guys survive and are sent on their way with one claw intact for fishing. The second claw grows back and is sometimes even ready to be chopped off again next season. It’s sustainable fishing at its finest.

The only downside is the requisite 5 months of bleak clawlessness every summer. But that ends today. Today the fortunate and well-to-do around Miami will make their pilgrimages to their favorite altar of holy crabbiness. From the no-nonesense Captain Jim’s in North Miami, the timeless bastion that is Joe’s on South Beach, and every fishery and crab shack in between, today South Florida’s favorite delicacy is served.

It’s cause for celebration. It should be a holiday. Actually, it sort of already is. So grab your loved ones and a cold one, and get cracking. Have a Happy Stone Crab Day!